Flowers

Viola “Whopping Purple Whiskers”

Viola “Whopping Purple Whiskers”Huge, 2.5″ across, intensely whiskered blooms of velvety purple and white! Free flowering over a long period of time (deadheading extends it even more) on a compact form, 9″ tall and 10″ across. Wonderful in pots. Rich soil for amazing show! Edible!

Read More »

Gelasine coeruleax

A rare member of the Iris family with such unusual colored flowers – sky-blue-flushed light lavender. The anthers are bright purple against a soft white throat. To 2” across, the Iris like flowers face outwards atop upright 12-20” stems and they just keep coming May till September – at least. Slender Iris-like foliage is evergreen for us here in USDA …

Read More »

Cupid’s Dart

“Cupid’s Dart” (Catananche caerulea ) provides masses of sturdy, upright stems topped by pearly-papery buds that open into these lovely semi-double, purple-eyed, lavender-blue, 2” blooms. Cupid’s Dart appear continuously from early to late summer, peaking in midsummer. Ancient Greeks and Romans used the flowers as the main ingredient in love potions, hence the amorous common name “Cupid’s Dart”. Genus name …

Read More »

Coyote Mint

Noted for its pleasant mint scent, Monardella villosa (Coyote Mint) is a small perennial forming a bushy mound of oval-shaped, soft, light fuzzy grayish-green leaves. They are topped by a profusion of small, bright lavender or pink flowers in dense spherical flower heads from late spring to alate summer. Nectar-rich, the blossoms are attractive to insects, especially bees and butterflies. …

Read More »

Buddleia ‘Butterfly Bush’

We have grown Buddleia in containers in our Sunnyvale garden for ten years.The purple flower panicle when it starts blooming in June is very beautiful. Unfortunately for Buddleia, as the year progresses, other flowers and fruits distract us. Buddleja, or Buddleia, commonly known as the butterfly bush, is a genus comprising over 140 species of flowering plants endemic to Asia, …

Read More »

Convolvulus sabatius

This pretty and tough evergreen groundcover is one of the most versatile, hard-working plants going! Lovely bluish-purple, open-faced, funnel-shaped 1-2” flowers appear in late Spring and continuing nonstop well into the Fall. Not invasive like some annual “Morning Glories”, this Mediterranean sun-lover needs little water once established. Forms a low, dense, vining mat of foliage 3’ across that helps with …

Read More »

Teucrium aroanium

This charming, fragrant groundcover hails from Greece. Masses of 3/4” two-lipped mauve flowers appear in late Spring and continue well into Fall! The bee-attracting flowers exude a honey scent while the oblong silvery-green leaves offer a pleasing woodsy fragrance. Like most Teucriums, this “Gray Creeping Germander” is a tough little guy, managing very well with little water and poor soil, …

Read More »

Lobelia aguana

Hundreds of well displayed, exotic, bearded, 2″ flowers jut out on prominent stems up and down the numerous upright stalks almost year round with the heaviest bloom occurring in Summer and Fall, with plenty of blooms continuing thru Winter. Pretty, evergreen, linear foliage. Can be cut back to 2′ tall in Winter to contain growth. Hummingbird heaven! Lobelia aguana, a …

Read More »

Armeria maritima ‘Ballerina Lilic’

New for 2019 in our Sunnyvale garden: Armeria ‘Ballerina Lilac’, commonly called thrift or sea pink, is a compact, low-growing plant which forms a dense, mounded tuft of stiff, linear, grass-like, dark green leaves (to 4″ tall). Tufts will spread slowly to 8-12″ wide. Tiny, purple flowers bloom in mid spring in globular clusters (3/4-1″ wide) atop slender, naked stalks …

Read More »

Love-in-the-mist – Nigella Hispanica

Love-in-a-mist (Nigella damascena) is a charming old-fashioned annual in the buttercup family (Ranunculaceae) that blooms in spring and early summer. One of about 15 species in the genus Nigella, love-in-a-mist is native to southern Europe and northern Africa. In its native habitat, this plant grows in fields, along roadsides, and in rocky or waste ground. The genus name Nigella comes …

Read More »